Castleford Tigers v Warrington Wolves 21-man squads named as boss says 'we can beat anyone'
Caretaker-coach Chris Chester admits Castleford Tigers lack leaders and belief, but insists they are capable of beating anyone in Super League when they get their game right.
Chester - along with assistants Brett Delaney, Scott Murrell and Rob Nickolay - will be in charge for the second time when Warrington Wolves visit the Jungle on Sunday. Tigers are on the back of a 26-22 loss at Betfred Super League’s bottom club Salford Red Devils a week earlier and the acting-boss stressed his priority since then has been getting the players to believe in themselves.
“We’ve had an honest week,” Chester said. “I’ve tried to instill confidence and belief into the players and I am hoping we throw the ball around and try things. We are a good side - on a good day, we can beat anybody. We are in front of our home crowd and Sunday is a good opportunity for us to put in a professional performance that makes the town proud.”
According to Chester, the loss at Salford was “a reflection of where we are as a playing group at the moment” and he revealed his approach this week has been more carrot than stick. He has named an unchanged 21-man squad and said: “We’ve got a distinct lack of confidence and belief in the playing group. It would have been easy for me to rock up on video review with a baseball bat and say ‘this is not good enough, this is rubbish’, but my role this week has been to try and pump their tires up a bit.
“The only way you are going to learn is, if you make a mistake, make sure you don’t make that mistake again. We are all pretty frustrated, we need to be a lot better.”
The only change to Warrington’s 21 sees Ewan Irwin replace James Harrison. The visitors are on a high after last Saturday’s last-gasp win at Catalans Dragons and Chester noted: “They’ve hit a bit of form. I think they are playing really well.
“Any team with George Williams in is a difficult team to play against. They are a big, physical pack, I know they’ve got injuries at the moment, but it is a pretty impressive spine. It is going to be a tough game, but we have got every confidence going into it.”
As well as helping with coaching, Chester is recruiting players and a coach for next season and the past week has highlighted a major priority. He said: “It is a very quiet playing group and over the last week I’ve just encouraged everybody to speak up in team meetings. It is really important I try to encourage these guys and we bring some leaders into the club and a coach that’s going to connect with the players and the town.”
Castleford Tigers: from Cini, Wood, I Senior, Asi, Milnes, Lawler, Simbiken, Mellor, Westerman, Griffin, Robb, Hall, I Senior, Rooney, Simm, Hill, Okoro, Singleton, Amone, Atkin, Stimson.
Warrington Wolves: from Crowther, Curries, Dufty, Fitzgibbon, Gardner, Irwin, King, McKinney, Philbin, Powell. Ratchford, Sneyd, Stone, Jake Thewlis, Josh Thewlis, Thomas, Vaughan, Williams, Wood, Wrench, Yates.
Referee: Jack Smith (Wigan). Kick-off: Sunday, 3pm.